Clothesline support



May 29, 1934. r w. w. WALLACE 1,960,607

CLOTHESLI NE SUPPORT Filed Jan. 20. 1932 gwvmto c iiatentecl May 29 1934.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CLOTHESLHNE' SUPPORT Ohio Application January 20, 1932, Serial No. 587,749

1 Claim.

pose set forth which is especially constructed for use in laundries, house cellars or basements, the support or hanger being readily attachable to the ceiling rafters or beams in order that a clothe1line may be trained around and sup- 7 ported by said hangers in order that a large number of lineal feet of the line may be readily supported from a room ceiling to utilize most advantageously the space available and to maintain the several lengths of the line in properly spaced relationship.

Due to inclement weather conditions, it is frequently impossible to dry freshly laundried clothes out of doors. This makes it necessary for the drying operation to be carried on indoors and, as a result, it is quite common for laundresses and others to hang freshly washed clothing from lines haphazardly stretched or set up in the basement of a building or other conveniently accessible enclosure. This is usually done by driving nails or hooks into the walls of the room for supporting the line, with the result of using an unnecessary amount of hanging space and at the same time having the lines so placed as to interfere with the general use and purposes of the rooms in which they are suspended.

Accordingly, it is the primary purpose of the present invention to provide a strong, durable and inexpensive hanger or support which may be readily nailed to the rafters or beams comprising the ceiling of a basement, cellar or the like and wherein the lower end of the hangers or supports are provided with hook shaped extremities adapted for the reception of the clothesline, the shape of such extremities permitting the clothesline to be readily attached to or disconnected from the supports so that facility will be obtained in the matter of placing the line in an operative clothes holding position or in removing the line from such a position. Each hanger being of such transverse or cross sectional configuration as to impart thereto a very high degree of mechanical strength so that when the clothesline or lines associated therewith is drawn taut or stretched, the hangers will readily absorb stresses and strains without becoming bent or distorted from their natural and desired condition.

With these and other objects in View, which will appear as the descriptionproceeds,'the invention consists in the novel features of construction, combination of elements and arrangements of parts hereinafter fully described and pointed out in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the ceiling of a basement or cellar provided with the clothesline supports comprising the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a detail perspective view of one of the supports or hangers;

Fig. 3 is a transverse horizontal sectional view taken therethrough; and

Fig. 4 is a similar view of a slightly modified form of the invention.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, the numeral 1 designates my improved clothes hanger in its entirety. Each of these hangers in the preferred form of my invention, is formed from a blank of sheet metal of approximate gauge or thickness and preferably galvanized or otherwise treated to resist corrosion. The sheet metal blank is stamped or otherwise formed to present a channel shaped section wherein each hanger embodies a front wall 2 and a pair of vertically extending side walls 3 which act as stiffening members, whereby when the length of the hanger is considered, the said hanger will possess a very considerable degree of rigidity or stiffness and will offer unusual resistance to bending or flexing forces. Contiguous to its lower end, each hanger has its side walls 3 bent or flattened as at 4 so as to lie immediately adjacent to the front wall 2, and these adiacent walls are then bent arcuately or circularly to form a hook 5, which is adapted to receive a clothesline 6. In the upper portion of the hanger, the front wall 2 is provided with a plurality of spaced perforations 7 which are adapted to receive nails or other fastening devices 8 which are utilized in securing each hanger to a rafter or beam 9, constituting a part of the ceiling of a basement or cellar, whereby each hanger is secured in connection with a beam or rafter against displacement. The lower 105 end of the hanger does not extend below the lower surface with which it is associated to a sufficient extent to interfere with the activities of persons walking below the frame if the cellar is of ordinary height.

In operation, the hangers are secured to the rafters of a room ceiling in desired spaced relationship. The clothesline' may be mounted or otherwise secured at one end to one 01 the hangers. The line is then trained through the hook shaped extremities 5 of the remaining hangers and is drawn tautly so that it does not sag or dip, the opposite end of the line being fastened. in any desired manner either to one of the hangers or to any other adjacent connection of a suitable character. By the provision of the hangers, the various lengths of the clothes line may be closely placed together so that the line will extend in an orderly manner,v as shown in Fig. 1, and, when the effective length of the line is considered, will take up but a minimum amount of ceiling or room space, so that a large quantity of clothing or the like may be suspended from the line in limited areas. Due to its mechanical strength, the stretching of the line in its applied position does not bend or twist the hanger, which is now being retained primarily by the stifiening walls 3. To prevent the edges of the walls where they engage with the rafter 9', from cutting into said rafters and producing grooves therein, which might weaken the connection efiecte'd by the nailed weight, the

said side walls may be provided with outturned portions 10, as shown in Fig. 4, where they engage with the sides of the rafters. These outturned portions produce an extended bearing area and eliminate any tendency on the part of the hanger to cut into the rafters, particularly when the clothesline is stretched and inwardly directed perpendicular strains imparted to the hanger.

While I have described what I consider to be the preferred form of my improved clothesline hanger, yet it will be apparent that the same is subject to some modification and variation in manufacture, and I reserve the right to employ all such constructional departures from the disclosure above given which may be said to fall fairly within the scope of the following claim.

What is claimed is:

A clothes line support formed from a straight fiat strip of metal bent longitudinally to form a c'hannel'shaped body, the sides of said channel flattened upon its bottom at one end and bent back under said bottom to form a' hook, and reenforcements formedintegrally with said body along substantially the rest of its length.

WAYNE WALLACE. 

